Critical notes on Systems Theory, Neoliberalism and Right to the City

Neoliberalism is here conceived as a production machinery of dedifferentiation trends, which aims at installing the entrepreneurial form throughout different spheres of life. In this sense, it is the negative of the Luhmannian emphasis on the primacy of function differentiation and the autonomy of the partial systems of modern society. I argue that systems theory could be rethought in a critical vein as a kind of seismograph of dedifferentiation trends and a cartography for the mapping of many contemporary urban conflicts which tend to occur precisely in the social force fields where differentiation and dedifferentiation trends fight each other. From this point of view, the movements for the right to the city face the challenge of self-constituting themselves as an instance of demands that goes far beyond social inclusion and the access to the existent. What seems to be at stake is to press for new social conditions that (i) enable the primacy of life spheres own rationalities and (ii) do not allow money and power to monopolise and saturate the construction and organisation of meaning in society.